The present invention relates to a method of uniquely identifying animals for data collection, records management and retrieval purposes in an accurate and cost-effective manner. Animal identification and registry has been an area of increasing concern over recent years. Generally speaking, animal identification and registry involves collecting data for each animal throughout its entire life cycle such that individual characteristics and the history of the animal can be tracked. This data may include, but is not necessarily limited to, date and place of birth, ancestry, sex, geographic movement, health and treatment history, and other production records. The livestock and food processing industries, in particular, have been heavily involved in this area in an effort to increase productivity and profitability in livestock management, as well as develop a strategy for identifying, tracing and managing the risks in the area of food safety and infectious disease outbreaks in livestock. Health and safety considerations demand that the origins of food products should be transparent. In addition, consumers now demand and some countries now require that the origins of meat products should be traceable so that quality assurance audits and monitoring procedures can be effectively and reliably carried out. A paper-based recording or tracking system would be sufficient to trace meat products back to the system or farm of origin. Nevertheless, papers may be lost, labels deteriorate on storage in a freezer and recording errors are made. The claimed system has the advantage that if a result is doubted or controversial, the samples in question can be retested by an independent third party. A significant challenge exists, however, in that there is currently no uniform system for identifying and tracing animals with sufficient specificity. Instead, a multitude of animal identification and registry conventions have evolved over time which vary widely depending upon such factors as the geographic location of the livestock operation and/or the manufacturer of the particular animal tracking system. One example is the lack of uniformity based on geographic location that is evident in the United States wherein each state determines its own animal identification scheme for livestock farms located within the state. Another example is, at present, various methods and combinations of methods are used in an attempt to ensure the identity and source of meat products through batch or consignment basis whereby batch/consignment numbers are applied to the batches/consignments from the source, through the slaughter process to the consumer. However, these examples demonstrate how current methods are time consuming, cumbersome and require considerable resources from farmers, processors and government or other agencies. Thus, this lack of uniformity is problematic in that it becomes increasingly difficult to trace back information concerning a specific animal. The usefulness of the collected data is thus compromised thereby undercutting such goals of the industry as increasing productivity and tracing the animal through its entire life cycle. It also increases the time required to trace back human exposure and potential issues of food safety while limiting the spread of infectious diseases which in certain circumstances, can lead to additional exposure to preventable health risks for humans and the spread of confinable diseases for animals which in turn could lead to the disposal of large numbers of animals. Managing the risk is clearly associated with data collection and information management systems that a well run animal operation should already have in place.
The capability to identify and track food products through the food chain at the retail level back to the farm or production system of origin is becoming a required process to address human safety issues. The importance of a system to trace food products is illustrated by many recent examples including problems with residues in fruit and vegetables, dioxin in poultry and E. coli 0157 contamination and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in beef products. It is also increasingly a requirement from retailers in order to guarantee the wholesomeness of the food product to their customers. It can be seen that presently and in the future there is an increasing requirement to verify the quality of products. The present invention fulfills this long-standing need and desire in the art.
As genetic and genomic research expands its influence to food production there is a requirement to maintain the integrity of the chain so that the benefits of selecting specific genotypes are taken through the chain to the point where the benefit can be exploited. Today, it is possible to select for specific alleles of genes in cattle and pigs that result in meat with improved meat or eating quality as judged by the processor and consumer. Thus, it is likely that these alleles/genes will be specified and that members of the chain will require confirmation that resulting claims can be verified. There is presently a need to positively identify the genetics that are said to be part of a program or package formulated to deliver specific carcass characteristics and meat quality attributes.
It is currently possible to put in place such a traceability system using paper or electronic passports that will trace an individual animal from birth to slaughter and link to tags or other forms of animal identification such as retinal imaging. However, these systems can be subject to fraud, although technology is being developed to link the two components (passport and animal) together. Nonetheless, these processes and the technology available today can only follow the carcass to the breaking table; the point where the animal is split up into primal cuts, joints etc. Once these primals are distributed to the different boning tables, product identity and the passport is lost at least from an individual carcass perspective. Lots or batches can still be contained although a clear separation is difficult to maintain between these lots and is subject to error and this adds significantly to the cost of production. In addition, the dissemination of the product to other plants for further processing also increases the problem.
There is a need to develop genetic data in a cumulative, comprehensive, and dynamic system of database management to thereby enhance the health predictability, and longevity of animals. The claimed system has the distinct advantage of using DNA information to trace meat products to the system or farm of origin. In the present invention a method of using DNA markers is presented as a means to identifying individual animals by obtaining genotypes of all prospective parents as references to be entered into a database and then comparing genotypes of offspring samples to this database to identify the prospective parents for each offspring. Similarly, parentage analysis using DNA markers can be used in a system to identify the source of carcasses and individual cuts of meat (offspring) to a specific farm (parents). The present invention is less costly than existing DNA tracing systems based on identity as the present invention does not have to keep samples of all slaughter animals, nor DNA fingerprint all slaughter animals. In the future, if cloning is ever used in the farming industry, the claimed system would also be effective provided that the given clones were unique to a particular system/farm.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for a system which traces animals through an efficient and cost-effective DNA marker method. The method of the present invention comprises the first step of providing a unique universal identification system for animals, such as pigs, that enables the identification and management to track food products through the food chain.
Accordingly, a primary objective of the invention is a method of genetic analysis using DNA fingerprinting to provide full traceability for the animal production chain whereby the collection of parentage samples is required and the collection of samples of the offspring groups provides for a necessary database for future use.
Another objective of the invention is the health profiling of an animal that determines characteristics of that animal through parentage DNA profiling.
A further objective of the invention is health profiling of an animal that comprises genetic data of animals enabling health assessment data of animals thereby to permit an analysis predicting health, disease, and disorder probabilities.
Yet another objective of the invention is a method for utilizing the genetic data of animals to provide a universal database enabling a traceability system for the entire production chain.
The method and means of accomplishing each of the above objectives will become apparent from the detailed description of the invention which follows. Additional objectives and advantages of the invention will also be set forth in part in the detailed description and in part will be obvious from the examples, or may be learned by the practice of the invention. The objectives and advantages of the invention will be obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations, particularly pointed out in the claims of the invention.